Monday, March 4, 2013

FICTIONAL BOOK SHOPS

Of course, as one might expect, I am drawn to fiction in which bookstores figure largely as a character in the story. One finds fictional book shops in the most unexpected places.This charming vintage scene by Harrie Wood of a shop interior is especially poignant for me, and speaks beguilingly to memory. For me, its sense of a still-living past carried into the future is strong.

The book is a juvenile story about the Boy Scouts entitled Three Points of Honor and was written by Russell Gordon Carter and Published in 1929 by Little Brown, and Company.

This picture and the story it illustrates are both fictions - but the illustration has great veracity in terms of its depiction of the character of a used book shop.

2 comments:

Not sure if this Comment will stick, but here goes... A genre - or at least a theme - all of its own book sellers and their business. My husband remembers (well he used to remember) visiting his maiden aunt at work in Blackwells of Oxford. The basement ran right under the road at just about the point where the Bishop Martyrs were burned at the stake - the stuff of legend! Your illustration is very evocative of an old book shop and the possibilities within isn't it.

Thank you Lady Mondegreen, your comments are always much appreciated. I remember Blackwells. I remember standing at a railing and looking out over the shop and feeling a sense of rightness. In a time too remote to allow for accurate dating, I lived for some four years in a village not far from Oxford, but did not get into Oxford as much as desired. Nor into lovely Banbury, either, as much as could have been desired. Shopping towns were Bicester and Deddington, both of which had their charms, especially Deddington, although it was in Bicester that I obtained a Raleigh Triumph bicycle.

Who is Professor Booknoodle?

Professor Booknoodle is an autodidactic book dealer from the early 20th century who has found that he has been inexplicably transplanted to the 21st century. The Professor has adjusted nicely. He still pursues bookselling as an avocation, and sells the occasional item. The Professor has noticed a change in the complexity of shipping. But his biggest perplexity is, in his own words, "How the deuce did I get shipped to the future?" Professor Booknoodle is the online avatar of Josiah Booknoodle, one half of the bookselling team that makes up Brothertown Books.